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In the right-wing press, Kung Sheung Daily News said editorially that the Governor's visit showed the storm over "1997 jitters" was moving in a new direction because it suggested that the talks were deadlocked. The paper said both China and Britain had put themselves in very difficult positions of "mounting the tiger". Beijing had got into trouble by emphasising nationalism. A concession in this area would render it liable to being accused as a national culprit. London was also mounting the tiger because of its insistence on validity of the treaties. It would be accused of disregarding international law should it yield in this area.
The paper also noted the Atlantic Charter declared by allied nations on August 14, 1941, said the status quo of a territory should not be changed if it was against residents' wishes. In 1962, the New Guinea settlement between Holland and Indonesia also stipulated that local residents' wishes should be consulted on whether the status quo should be changed.
Commenting on the Financial Times report that Exco had gained an independent voice in the diplomatic talks, the Financial Daily said when conditions were ripe there should be appropriate channels for all HK people to express their views on HK's future because opinion canvassed so far was fragmented and could not represent the views of all local residents. The editorial also called on HK people to play an active part in airing their views and to leave the sovereignty issue to Britain and China.
HK TEAM VISITS GUANGDONG:
The visit on January 26, 27 to Guangdong by a HK delegation headed by the Political Adviser for talks on border liaison was widely covered. Accompanying him were the Director of Immigration and the PAS (Ops) Security Branch. On their return, Mr. Mclaren said the two sides agreed to appoint customs liaison officers, in addition to the existing police and immigration contacts, to stem smuggling and drug trafficking activities. Mr. Bridge said he had explained the new HK ID card to the Chinese side and stressed that there would be no amnesty for illegal immigrants. The two sides also discussed illegal immigration, including smuggling children to HK. Commenting on the visit, the New Evening Post and HK Commercial Daily said the public would definitly like to see better co-operation in border liaison work in order to provide greater convenience for people going to China to visit friends and relatives. The two papers also noted that the People's Daily recently published a series of articles on Shenzhen which said Shenzhen was linked to HK and Kowloon and they had to depend on each other for survival.
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RESULTS OF POLL:
Results of the opinion poll conducted by Kung Sheung Daily News together with its sister paper Kung Sheung Evening News showed that 85 per cent of the 42 923 respondents wanted to maintain the status quo on expiry of the NT lease. Only 0.09 per cent were in favour of handing over both sovereignty and administrative rights to China. Other options chosen were: sovereignty returned to China, but British administration here to continue for a long time (3.4%): sovereignty returned to China and HK people to administer HK (0.66%); HK to gain independence (4.7%); and HK entrusted to the UN (6.2%). On the question of whether there should be a referendum to allow HK people to decide their own fate. 97.6 per cent said yes: 1.73 said no; and the remaining 0.67 per cent had no comment. said respondents came from all walks of life, and included lawyers, doctors, workers, accountants. teachers, architects, businessmen and civil servants.
The papers
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